Overview
Portfolios are an opportunity to pull together many different concepts learned in class and create a single larger application. Each portfolio is divided into a few parts.
- Complete a semester-long coding assignment (required)
- Complete a self-reflection (required)
- Complete a peer code review (required)
- Complete one or more add-ons that expand on existing lab problems (optional)
Semester-Long Project (Required)
I will assign you a problem that you will work on in each of the portfolios over the semester. This problem is more open-ended than the traditional labs that you complete during the semester, allowing you to add your own creative touch to the project. Your code will be graded in a similar manner to the labs, with points awarded for a working solution, rigorous tests, and clean code.
Self-Reflection (Required)
The self-reflection is an opportunity for you to take a step back and think about your work on the portfolio. I will ask you questions on topics including your strategy for solving the problem, some of the issues that you ran into when writing the code, and thoughts on how you might expand your submission.
Peer Code Review (Required)
An important skill that good developers need to build is the ability to read and review other people’s code. It is common practice for code to go through one or more rounds of peer review before it is released to production. In each portfolio, you will have an opportunity to review another person’s code as well as have your code reviewed. This will happen before I grade the portfolios - it is my hope that everyone performs a good review for their partners and catches any major issues before I look at the code.
Portfolio Add-Ons (Optional)
At the bottom of each problem given in lab is a set of add-ons for the portfolios, each with a “credit” value. You can complete these add-ons for some extra credit points on your portfolio. Do not start the problem over from scratch. Instead, make additions / changes to your code and submit the final version of the problem. If you decide to complete multiple add-ons for one lab, you will still submit ONE program with all of the add-ons implemented.
It is highly recommended that if you decide to do portfolio add-ons for a given problem, you first do corrections for that problem (if applicable). Trying to add code onto an existing, incorrect solution is likely to result in more incorrect work.
Each add-on to a lab is given a credit score to indicate approximately how difficult it is. Roughly speaking, one credit is easy, two credits is moderate, and three or more credits is difficult. It is your choice which problems / credits you want to complete. For example, ten “one-credit” add-ons and five “two-credit” add-ons both count as ten credits. You are allowed to do multiple add-ons from a single problem.
Handing In Portfolios
You will hand in your portfolios as an assignment on Blackboard, similar to how you hand in your labs.
Grading
The grade breakdown for each portfolios is as follows:
| Part | Percent |
|---|---|
| Semester-Long Project | 70% |
| Self-Reflection | 15% |
| Peer Review | 15% |
You can complete add-ons for extra credit according to the following scale.
| Number of Credits | Extra Percentage Points |
|---|---|
| 5 | 2% |
| 10 | 3% |
| 15 | 4% |
| 20+ | 5% |